This hour, we look at the spread of measles in the United States. And we talk to health and science communicators who are working to tell the story of that disease in new ways.
Ahead of the World Cup, state health leaders say they are relying on a playbook they’ve used many times before, for blizzards, holiday celebrations, championship games, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Boston Marathon bombing.
Yet the World Cup dwarfs virtually any other event hosted in the region in decades, spanning 16 North American cities over five weeks and drawing an estimated 2 million fans to Greater Boston. Players and ticket-holders will ricochet across not just the region, but the country.
Measles cases continue to rise – this is worrying. The good news is that there is a super effective vaccine that protects you and your loved ones.
Note – we use data from both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Brown University Pandemic Center’s weekly tracking report. While the CDC tracks confirmed cases only, the Pandemic Center tracks both probable and confirmed cases using publicly available data from state health departments. (Numbers below are correct as of March 13, 2026).
Americans’ trust in federal vaccine recommendations declines markedly under Trump
One in three Americans trust childhood vaccine guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics more than the CDC’s recommendations, a new poll finds
Just six in 10 Americans trust the federal government’s childhood vaccine recommendations, a new poll finds. That marks a notable drop from June 2025, when 71 percent of poll respondents said they trusted the government’s vaccine guidance. The greatest decline was among Democrats—from 81 percent to 66 percent—although Republicans’ and Independents’ trust also waned.
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In March 2020, the World Health Organization’s director-general declared COVID-19 a pandemic, saying the agency was “deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction.” Since the virus emerged six years ago, the disease has taken the lives of more than 7 million people, according to data tracked by KFF, a health research organization. COVID infections have left hundreds of millions of people with long COVID, a complex and chronic condition.
“We’re going to have more pandemics,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, professor of epidemiology and director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University School of Public Health, noting that data shows that the chances of future pandemics and the frequency with which they could occur are increasing.
Recently, the Trump administration offered $20 billion to provide re-insurance coverage for vessels sailing through the Strait of Hormuz amid conflict in the Middle East. Yet, closer to home, there is an immediate public health threat posed by the resurgence of measles, a serious disease once under control that needs federal support.
Measles outbreaks are a medical and systems issue, emerging from vaccination behavior, public trust, health policy and the capacity of the public health infrastructure to handle increasing demands. One can rightfully ask whether the idea of federal support for emergency economic issues should also apply to the costs associated with measles.
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In the three decades between 1993 and 2024, measles in the U.S. was relatively rare – a few hundred cases each year, at most. But suddenly, the disease has become so entrenched in American life that it sometimes fails to make headlines when a new outbreak erupts.
As of March 2026, measles has been continuously circulating around the U.S. for more than a year, starting with an outbreak in Texas that lasted from January to August 2025. Before that outbreak was declared over, an outbreak on the Utah and Arizona border began in August and is ongoing. An outbreak in South Carolina began in September, drastically increased in January 2026, and continues.
South Plains, Texas, had long declared its measles outbreak over when in January wastewater testing picked up what Zachary Holbrooks called “a blip, a spike.”
The testing found measles after months without traces of the virus, which by the 2025 West Texas outbreak’s end infected over 750 people, hospitalized nearly a hundred, and two children died.
In the year that US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been in office, his agency has made unprecedented changes to the childhood immunization schedule, removing universal recommendations for a half-dozen vaccines in favor of “shared clinical decisionmaking.”
Measles outbreak erupts in one of U.S.’s largest ICE detention centers
Camp East Montana, one of the largest immigration detention facilities in the U.S., has reported 14 confirmed measles infections, triggering the El Paso center to close to visitors
Experts say that the Trump administration has failed to take obvious steps to contain the spread of measles, which is continuing to accelerate in the United States as the number of cases has climbed past 1,000.
The administration has revealed a relaxed attitude toward the highly contagious virus both in terms of messaging and funding allocation, experts said.
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Heard about a lot of people getting flu this winter but not much about covid?
It’s not just you. For the second winter in a row, the United States has faced a punishing flu season, with covid as a more muted threat.
Early in the covid pandemic, coronavirus proved far more transmissible and deadly as it ripped through the world than the flu typically was. Flu was almost nonexistent that first pandemic winter in 2020-2021.
When we gather indoors and exhale CO2, levels can rapidly rise and impair our cognitive function, even at levels that are pretty typical for indoor buildings in the US. But solutions are surprisingly cheap and easy! Today I'm joined by Dr. Georgia Lagoudas PhD, MIT grad and Senior Fellow and faculty at Brown University’s School of Public Health, where she brings extensive expertise in biosecurity and indoor air quality. She leads the at Brown, advancing policy and implementation projects to improve indoor air quality.
Beginning fall 2026, in-person master’s students in the School of Public Health will matriculate under a newly designed curriculum that has been structured to provide greater flexibility.
The goal is for students to graduate equipped with more hands-on skills and greater knowledge of how to apply their education to their chosen professions, said Associate Director of the Accelerated Master of Public Health Program and Associate Dean for Education in the SPH Scott Rivkees, who spearheaded the curriculum’s restructure.
The US government has amplified anti-vaccine rhetoric and signaled that it does not consider measles to be a priority, which could have global ramifications as countries around the world have lost or are on the brink of losing measles elimination status.
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For the past week, about 50 flu scientists from around the world have been cramming into a conference room at a Hilton hotel in Istanbul, Turkey.
Their goal is to design a flu shot that will confer the best protection for the next flu season —starting in the fall of 2026. Each day, they pore over reams of data — about how the virus is evolving worldwide, how well last year's shot performed, and which strains might be easiest to mass produce for a vaccine.
For the past month, several inches of snow have consistently coated the ground in Providence and areas across the state. With grass buried and ponds frozen solid, birds that rely on the food sources these ecosystems provide have not been able to find sustenance.
And because of these treacherous conditions, Rhode Island’s wildlife rehabilitation clinics are reporting record numbers of sick and injured birds.
At around 2 a.m., 7-year-old twin brothers arrived at Mission Hospital in Asheville. Both had a fever, a cough, a rash, pink eye, and cold symptoms.
The boys sat in one waiting room and then another. Two hours and 20 minutes passed before the two were isolated, according to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services records obtained by KFF Health News. Then two more hours ticked by.
Two weeks ago, we were humbled by the conversations that followed our first issue. So many people are out there tracking these policies and their implications in depth—researchers, advocates, clinicians—and we’re blown away by what we’re finding. The public health response to what’s unfolding has been remarkable: states moving fast, medical organizations holding the line, legal teams working around the clock, communicators finding creative ways to reach people. We’ll be linking to as much of it as we can throughout this piece, because part of what we want this series to be is a jumping-off point, connecting you to the people on the ground doing this work and the resources they are creating.
The United States has supported the World Health Organization (WHO) since its inception, playing a central role in its 1948 creation because it ultimately served American interests, despite the entity’s well-known flaws. Heavily influenced by the post-war notion that universalism was the best corrective to yet another devastating global conflict, 20th century leaders in the U.S. understood that improving global health and containing emergencies were desirable outcomes in and of themselves and would directly reduce health threats to Americans. At the time, the U.S. also recognized that building and maintaining an effective global health infrastructure was beyond its lone capacity. Because no one could predict where new infections would emerge, the world required a truly global surveillance and response system. Through WHO, the U.S. leveraged funding sources far beyond its own substantial monetary contributions and granted U.S. experts access to countries otherwise hostile to American initiatives. U.S. withdrawal from the organization on 22 January 2026 and from other international health partnerships, such as Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance—which I led from 2011 to 2023—makes achieving America’s interests more difficult, especially as the current administration dismantles much of the country’s other public health infrastructure.
(TNND) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is refusing to review Moderna’s application for approval of an mRNA-based flu vaccine, the latest step taken by the administration that might chill the use of the technology that was key to the rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic.
The Trump administration recently declared prenatal acetaminophen (paracetamol) exposure a cause of autism, misrepresenting scientific consensus and receiving swift criticism from experts and medical organizations. The administration’s choice to single out acetaminophen was surprising given the available data: several carefully designed studies, using large sibling cohorts from Norway, Sweden, and Japan, have investigated and disputed a potential acetaminophen-autism link.
Results from this year’s R.I. Life Index survey, a partnership between Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Rhode Island and the Brown University School of Public Health, also reflected rising concerns about health care access.
A measles outbreak in Collier County has reached 12 confirmed cases.
This outbreak joins ones already existing and growing in Texas and South Carolina with hundreds of cases. Those outbreaks are a threat to the United States keeping its measles-free status.
Starting Jan. 29, measles cases began showing up at Ave Maria University.
As measles cases continue to rise, the United States is at risk of losing its measles elimination status.
According to a spokesperson from the Pan American Health Organization, which will oversee the review of the United State’s measles elimination status on April 13, the “reestablishment of endemic transmission would be defined as a continuous chain of transmission lasting through or beyond” Jan. 20.
The Herald spoke to experts at Brown to better understand measles, its potential threats and the possibility of the United States losing its elimination status.
The promise and perils of artificial intelligence (AI) are perhaps most starkly demonstrated in the worlds of healthcare and biomedical sciences. In these fields, striking the right balance between innovation and regulation is quite literally a matter of life and death. As scientists, policymakers, and practitioners around the world contemplate using AI to support research, transform the delivery of care, and protect us from the next pandemic, they must also contend with the potential of this technology to compromise privacy, curtail freedoms, and even create new biological threats.
ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. RAMBLED THROUGH a long list of topics when he spoke at the White House during Thursday’s cabinet meeting.
He talked about dietary guidelines and rural health care. Prescription drugs and medical research. He even mentioned hospital price transparency, which is one of the more obscure parts of his portfolio as secretary of health and human services.
But there was one subject Kennedy skipped, in an omission as disturbing as it was conspicuous. He didn’t say a word about the measles outbreak in South Carolina, which is the nation’s biggest in decades.
(TNND) — A dozen leading medical groups lent their support to the American Academy of Pediatrics' 2026 childhood vaccine recommendations, which run counter to recently revised recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, or AAP, published its updated vaccine schedule Monday, weeks after the CDC trimmed the list of shots it advises all children receive.
The AAP recommends routine immunizations against 18 diseases, including RSV, hepatitis B, the annual flu shot, and others that the CDC now only recommends for high-risk groups or in consultation with a doctor.
COVID-19 offered a difficult lesson about the devastation a virus can bring to our world. In his latest book, Fair Doses: An Insider's Story of the Pandemic and the Global Fight for Vaccine Equity, Dr. Seth Berkley provides us the fascinating backstory of vaccines: how they came about, why they’re important, and how they have been made globally available. But our quest for vaccine equity remains ongoing. Dr. Berkley, an internationally-recognized infectious disease epidemiologist, offers an insider’s view of the challenges of developing and disseminating vaccines for a broad swath of illnesses, from Ebola to AIDS to malaria and beyond.
Seth Berkley, MD, is an infectious disease epidemiologist currently advising vaccine, biotechnology, and technology companies, and is Adjunct Professor and Senior Adviser to the Pandemic Center at Brown University. He co-founded COVAX, a global vaccine initiative; and founded and served as CEO of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative.COVID-19 offered a difficult lesson about the devastation a virus can bring to our world. In his latest book, Fair Doses: An Insider's Story of the Pandemic and the Global Fight for Vaccine Equity, Dr. Seth Berkley provides us the fascinating backstory of vaccines: how they came about, why they’re important, and how they have been made globally available. But our quest for vaccine equity remains ongoing. Dr. Berkley, an internationally-recognized infectious disease epidemiologist, offers an insider’s view of the challenges of developing and disseminating vaccines for a broad swath of illnesses, from Ebola to AIDS to malaria and beyond.
Seth Berkley, MD, is an infectious disease epidemiologist currently advising vaccine, biotechnology, and technology companies, and is Adjunct Professor and Senior Adviser to the Pandemic Center at Brown University. He co-founded COVAX, a global vaccine initiative; and founded and served as CEO of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative.
NYC Health + Hospitals Launches Special Pathogens Biopreparedness Map to Monitor and Prepare for Outbreaks
New interactive map will help healthcare providers screen patients based on their travel history and potential exposure to special pathogens and other biothreats
The public health care system’s Biopreparedness Program, established after the 2014 Ebola outbreak, is a national leader in infectious disease preparedness and response
The United States’ withdrawal from the World Health Organization became official Thursday, formalizing a fissure between the Trump administration and the Geneva-based global health agency that dates back to the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Thursday marks the one-year anniversary of the date on which the WHO was informed that President Trump had decreed that the U.S. would terminate its membership in the organization, something he tried to do during his first term in office. According to a joint congressional resolution passed in 1948 to allow the United States to join the WHO, the country had to give a year’s notice before withdrawing. (The joint resolution also stipulated that the country had to pay outstanding bills before leaving, a condition that has not been met.)
After a year of ongoing measles outbreaks that have sickened more than 2,400 people, the United States is poised to lose its status as a measles-free country. However, the newly appointed principal deputy director at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Ralph Abraham, said he was unbothered by the prospect at a briefing for journalists this week.
Scott Rivkees still remembers two cases from his first week as a pediatric intern at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1982.
The first was a patient with chickenpox or varicella encephalitis, a virus that causes brain inflammation. The second was a child with bacterial meningitis, a severe infection that causes inflammation of the membranes around the brain and spinal cord. The infection can produce seizures and deafness and lead to death.
It’s been a year since a measles outbreak began in West Texas, and international health authorities say they plan to meet in April to determine if the U.S. has lost its measles-free designation.
Experts fear the vaccine-preventable virus has regained a foothold and that the U.S. may soon follow Canada in losing the achievement of having eliminated it.
The reevaluation is largely symbolic and hinges on whether a single measles chain has spread uninterrupted within the U.S. for at least 12 months.
On Jan. 5, Brown University Health — the largest hospital system in Rhode Island — announced that all of their facilities would require patients, visitors and staff to wear a N95 or Level 2 surgical mask. The new guidelines, effective Jan. 6, follow increased rates of respiratory viruses in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
It has been a full year since one of the worst measles outbreaks in recent U.S. history began ripping through West Texas. The highly infectious disease has continued to burn across multiple U.S. states, Mexico and Canada since Texas reported an outbreak in children in January 2025. The U.S. had been virtually free of the disease for more than a quarter-century thanks to highly effective and safe vaccines, but now experts say we’re on track to losing that status if officials determine measles has spread continuously for a year.
Flu cases are ticking down, but experts warn the U.S. isn’t out of the woods yet. Fifteen more children died from the flu in the week ending Jan. 10, bringing the total of pediatric deaths to 32.
On Friday, the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported an over 18% drop in confirmed flu cases, compared to the previous week. Doctor visits for respiratory illnesses also decreased by more than 5% and hospitalization rates went down by nearly 55%. Influenza deaths rose by 2%.
Today, we’re joined by sociologist Vivek Chibber, the provocative scholar and social critic who has a pointed critique of the modern day Left. The host of the Confronting Capitalism podcast joins us and argues that their management of institutions—including academia, media, the Democratic Party, and even public health—is completely out of touch with the lives and struggles of working and middle-class Americans. We discuss how this disconnect is fueling the widespread distrust of experts and institutions today, as well as Chibber's critique of the MAHA movement and its alliance with MAGA.
We also speak with public health professor and emergency physician Craig Spencer to explore how these critiques play out in the health space —on public health, cuts to scientific research, and the shrinking safety nets under the Trump administration. Finally, we discuss what, if anything, can be done to rebuild trust within communities that feel left behind, keying off of polling showing dramatic bipartisan support of the idea that good healthcare is a human right.
Things were going to change in public health. That much was certain after President Donald Trump chose Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be his secretary of health. One contributor to the Bulletin compared Kennedy, who built a career sowing distrust of vaccines, to Trofim Lysenko, the Soviet official who embraced pseudoscientific agricultural practices and sparked widespread famine, or Thabo Mbeki, the South African president who rejected the science of HIV/AIDS and exacerbated the disease’s devasting toll in that country. Yet Kennedy has managed to shock health experts.
Maybe you’ve been sitting in church or listening to a lecture that, though provocative, sends you into a dozing dreamland, despite getting plenty of sleep the night before. Or maybe you’ve fought to stay awake during a long car ride. These experiences often have as their root cause a common factor — poor indoor air quality caused by a buildup of carbon dioxide because of poor ventilation.
Developing a vaccine is one challenge. Delivering it to billions is another entirely. Dr. Seth Berkley – one of the most influential leaders in global health and the former CEO of Gavi – joins us to unpack his new book Fair Doses, which reveals the hidden systems, politics, and economics behind global immunization.
Under his leadership, Gavi was the largest vaccine organization in the world, raising $20 billion in funding, delivering 7 billion vaccine doses, and immunizing 3 billion children, transforming global access and reshaping the vaccine market for low-income countries. Dr. Berkley explains why vaccine mistrust has persisted for centuries, and why today’s misinformation environment is uniquely dangerous. He details how Gavi’s alliance model mobilized WHO, UNICEF, governments, and manufacturers to build the largest vaccine delivery network in history. We also go inside COVAX, from vaccine nationalism to the supply-chain barriers that defined the global COVID-19 response. Finally, Dr. Berkley looks ahead to how mRNA, synthetic biology, and AI could radically accelerate our ability to respond to the pandemics to come.
Much of the country is facing record flu cases thanks to a new strain of the virus. And the “subclade K” variant is likely already here in Spokane.
The new strain formed last year as influenza A’s H2N3 virus mutated. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the mutated form of the virus accounts for 91.2% of flu present in the United States. The surprise variant was not factored into this year’s flu vaccine, so the vaccine may be less effective because of it.
Flu activity in Texas has reached a “very high” level for the first time this season, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with emergency room visits climbing sharply in recent weeks.
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(TNND) — President Donald Trump celebrated a revision to the government's recommendations for childhood vaccinations that he said would "no longer require 72 'jabs' for our beautiful, healthy children."
But leading medical groups sounded an alarm over the changes as arbitrary and dangerous.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now recommending routine vaccinations against 11 diseases, down from 17 as of the end of 2024.